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I've been working my way through the alt.tv.twin-peaks archive for the past few months, and am hoping to round-up some of the more interesting comments eventually in a blog post. Anyway I ran across one which I wanted to share here. It's from September '91, i.e. after the show concluded and a year before the film was released:

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Later Episodes?

Just to see if I can get some talk going here, I would like to saysomething about the White Lodge/Black Lodge story that built up afterthe death of Leland. While I would not make a statement that "theyshould have ended the series after Leland's death", I do rememberthinking when it became clear that they were going to focus on theLodges that the show was in over its head, and for me that story neverhad the epic sense that a story like that has in some of theliterature and mythology which has also treated it.

I realize I risk being flamed unmercifully, so I am trying to treadcarefully here. I don't really have time to carefully analyze justwhy it might have fallen short for me, but a few possibilitiesinclude:

1. That there was not a single writer or perhaps even a strong individualcreative vision by that time which could carry the theme through.

2. That Lynch's talent for showing quirky characters and bizarre everydaydetails of life fit much better into showing how all the members of asmall town could be tied in with the death of its homecoming queenthan into an epic and rather abstract story like the Lodges.

3. That it was never clear whether the Lodges were psychological (theconfrontation of the Dream Souls), spiritual (concentrating on theSouls rather than the Dream), or moral (basic good/evil dichotomy), soit never could completely treat any of these.

4. (Discussed earlier on the net) That showing so much of Windom Earleto the audience in some way diminished his power, compared with BOB,who remained a mystery all the way through.

5. That I almost never watch TV so I am not able to really evaluatethe medium realistically--there may have been things going on that Imissed because I have more of a literary and psychological approach tothings than is perhaps appropriate for TV.

6. That the subplots didn't fit in as well with the main Lodge storyas the earlier subplots fit with the Laura Palmer story. (i.e. it waseasier to see Harold Smith or One-Eyed Jack's in the context of "thereis a dark and mysterious side to this seemingly idyllic small town"than to accept Little Nicky or Evelyn Marsh or Audrey's love affair asbeing intimately tied in with the Black Lodge or White Lodge)

Anyway, I would very much like to hear what other people think ofthis. What did people particularly like about the Lodge story? Ishould hasten to point out that I watched Twin Peaks with interestthrough to the end, and I was very glad that they were even ATTEMPTINGsuch a theme. But I'm trying to figure out why it is that I feel asthough it never quite managed to live up to the theme's possibilitiesin the way that it brilliantly treated the murder.

Flame away..."Fire, walk with me."

Barb Miller

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While I think most of her individual points are pretty solid (despite the fact that the Lodge mythology is easily my favorite part of post-Laura Peaks), what really fascinates me about her comment is that it treats Laura and the Lodge as two different, almost opposing plotlines. My own tendency has been to see the Lodge aspect of season 2 as the one thing that tied BACK to Laura in a way but Barb '91 brings an interesting perspective to bear. Without the hindsight of FWWM (and, to a much lesser extent, the finale) - which explicitly ties those two storylines together - would they seem so intimately related? Hell, I don't think even Bob is explicitly rooted in the Black Lodge at all until something like episode 25. I'd be interested to hear from people who watched the series at the time: did you see this as a big course-change or did you see it as organically growing out of and even extending from the Laura mystery? And did Fire Walk With Me at all change your conception of how these different narratives were interrelated?